A MULTICOMPONENT COMPLEX CONTROLS ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNALING IN BACILLUS SUBTILIS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The general stress response contributes to bacterial survival in the natural environment, in food, and in pathogenic interactions. The general stress signaling pathway in B. subtilis closely resembles the pathways in the related human pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus anthracis, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We have isolated a 700 kDa B. subtilis complex involved in environmental stress signaling. The complex was purified from crude extracts first by affinity chromatograpy and then by size. Judging by a coomassie-stained gel, the peak fractions contain at least 20 proteins, five of which were identified using antibodies specific for proteins known to be involved in the pathway. Some of the unknown proteins may be contaminants or chaperones, whereas other may be stress sensing proteins. Once some of the unknown proteins in the complex are identified, we can disrupt their structural genes to learn if the products do in fact have signaling role.